Recently, I’ve repeatedly found myself trying to double tap WASD keys in Rift and other games in the vain hope of opening distance with an opponent or dodging an attack.

In so short a space of time I have become very used to the ‘action-lite’ combat in Guild Wars 2 and I find myself missing this element to combat in other games. It’s not necessarily for the requirement to dodge away from ‘telegraphed attacks’ by veteran/elite opponents. Rather I think it’s the sense of control this mechanic gives you, especially as a squishy cloth-wearing caster, to get away from damage and re-assert some control over the combat situation.

I guess my love for this mechanic, which is nothing new other than it’s ubiquity in GW2, has it’s origin in the hunter class in WoW. I loved the disengage ability for it’s showy animation and for the tiny extra layer of tactics that it added to the tab-target combat.

2 Responses to Missing the dodge

TSW makes extensive use of the “active dodge” and while if you’re paying attention and know your fights then most abilities that you would/should need to dodge can be walked out of or interrupted, it’s still a nice “oh crap” thing that any character can do. In Rift I find myself trying to do it a lot vs invasion bosses and such. Most classes in Rift have a skill you can spec into that gives you the ability to teleport forward or backward, but I forget I have them and keep trying to double-tap instead of hitting my actual dodge hotkey. I’ll get better at it. . . .